1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a gas-liquid separator that separates and discharges water contained in an off-gas discharged from a fuel cell.
2. Description of Related Art
Since an electrolyte membrane used in a fuel cell such as a polymer electrolyte fuel cell is capable of exhibiting high electric power generation performance in a high humid state, a reaction gas supplied to the fuel cell may be humidified. In addition, for the purpose of improving the utilization rate of a reaction gas and preventing water from remaining in a fuel cell, a circulation-type reaction gas supply mechanism that separates water from an off-gas discharged from the fuel cell and supplies a resultant reaction gas to the fuel cell again may be used. In such a reaction gas supply mechanism, a gas-liquid separator is used to separate water from an off-gas. For example, in a fuel cell system disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 5354026, a supply path for supplying a reaction gas to a fuel cell stack and a discharge path for discharging an off-gas from the fuel cell stack are formed in an end plate (stack manifold), and a gas-liquid separator is connected to the end plate.
However, in the fuel cell system disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 5354026, since the gas-liquid separator is disposed separately from the end plate, the total installation space for the end plate and the gas-liquid separator is very large, which results in an increase in the size of the fuel cell system. For this reason, technology capable of suppressing an increase in the sizes of a fuel cell system including a gas-liquid separator has been demanded.